Caffeinated SEO: "Speed" Important in SEO Rankings?

Google has been testing a new addition to their ranking system aptly called Caffeine. Why Caffeine? Because, the idea is that Google is looking for ways to speed up search.

In fact, Google has created a web speed resource page to help you do just that. It is titled, Let's Make the Web Faster. So it would seem that if by their own behavior Google is valuing Web speed, then so should you and I if we wish to get higher rankings (SERPS).

Four Ways to Test Your Site Speed

1. http://www.webpagetest.org Google's spokeman Matt Cutts recommends this site to test your site's speed. So what the hell, I ran it with HouseBlogger.com.After you are done exclaiming a big huh!!?? Check out a few more speed test sites.
2. http://www.websiteoptimization.com/
3. http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test
4. http://www.websitegoodies.com/tools/speed-test.php
5. http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/download.html

OK. That stuff above is how geeks like to scare you. And chances are you will find them meaningless of you are of just an website owner that wants some good rankings.

Two Major Influencers of Your Website's Speed

With the tips above I would look at what Google says:

1. Server Speed-Make sure that your host has some testosterone. Simply put, your server is just a computer and a hard drive. So the basics you might look for in a work computer could help you understand your needs in a host server.
   
   For speed you want a server with plenty of Ram and Hard drive speed. Most popular Hosting companies can provide this. However, the cheap solutions offer a shared server. Meaning you share your hard drive space with other websites. So if another website uses lots of resources, your website could slow down.
   
   Thus, you might want to consider a dedicated server for your website. This is much more expensive, but for many reasons beyond the scope of this article well worth the investment if the site is an important asset to your business. I am reluctant to offer actual numbers as far as amount of Ram or amount of hard drive speed.
2. Webpage Elements: Your website must be running clean code. Many open source solutions like Wordpress blogs run great code. However, many other open source solutions do not validate. What do I mean by validate? Run your website through the W3 Validator. (Many websites do not validate perfectly, but the more perfect your page is, the faster it will load).
   
   Your web designer should know to create a style sheet and off page javascript. One thing you should be careful of is to make sure you squeeze your graphics down to the smallest size possible. Use this tool to crunch your images. Be sure to size your images down to the size you will use in the webpage. In other words, if you want your graphic to be 150x150 in the page post. Then be sure to resize the image to 150 x 150 in your graphics editor. Before you upload the graphic to the server.

Using these tools and ideas will help you to have a spry webpage. And thus a webpage that is more usable for your visitor. And therefore, more likely to rank better for your SEO. Cutts expects a roll out post holdays. Although, it is believed at least one data center is live with Caffeine right now.